Cheerful Abundance

a field notebook of suburban life

The kids have a four day weekend, thanks to President’s day, and they are having fun! Yesterday, their dad took them sledding for the first time, thanks to a lovely family who also has twins, and who knew of a secret sledding hill gentle enough for little kids, but steep enough to be a little scary. The girls had fun on their sledding playdate, and I got some quiet time to clean in, and I guess that is win-win? Not sure what sick path my life took that having the opportunity to clean house in peace became a fist-pumping moment of win, but there you go.

So I cleaned, in peace, and very slowly, because last week was rough. Thank G-d we could replicate last year’s valentines easily. Tuesday was the ’100 day’ celebration, and Thursday was the kids’ valentine’s parties, and Wednesday, my schedule looked like this: 3 hour IEP meeting at the school, 2 hour Good Works Meeting, evening funeral, then come home and finish valentines. You might think that day couldn’t get worse, and you would be wrong, because after I left my afternoon meeting to go home and make dinner and get dressed for the funeral, I was in a car accident. So, that day sucked. I am fine, I guess, and the other guy is fine, and it was 100% not my fault, and he was very apologetic, but damn, everything hurt for a few days. I had to call my husband at a meeting, though, and get him to do school pick-up, and tell him his car was smacked up, and that wasn’t fun. Then I called the police, and then I dropped my phone on the concrete, which triggered the music folder and made my phone start playing Lady Gaga’s Born This Way on full volume. The screen was black, I couldn’t turn it down or off, and so for a few minutes the guy that crashed into me and I stood awkwardly next to my car while Gaga belted out her best Madonna imitation. Finally, I got the bright idea to chuck it in my car and close the door, but we could still hear Gaga’s slightly racist lyrics and thumping base line. Here is a sentence nobody is every going to say about me: “She carried it off with aplomb”.

The kids are off sledding again today, because after a month of being stuck inside we are desperate for them to get some fresh air and have some fun. This polar vortex has made it impossible to just play outside, and it also meant no recess for a month, and everybody’s nerves are frayed at this point. And I am cleaning again, instead of lounging around or reading a good book, so obviously I don’t learn from my mistakes.